Behold the adorableness that is an authentic Tahitian dancing girl outfit sent to Ronin from my pregnant sailor buddy Antonia, who bravely puked her way into the wilds of the South Pacific, where tubs of Deep Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream are few and far between, and who is now living in New Zealand. (And who is also no longer pregnant, by the way.) Upon opening the gift I immediately started lactating over The Cute.

Ronin was sort of crawling last night around, oh, 4:26am in her cradle. First she’d rock violently, making the structure squeak and quake, then she’d lift her butt into a ‘downward dog’ yoga pose a few times, and finally she’d crawl back and forth, all the while crying miserably with her eyes squeezed shut. We didn’t know whether to shrivel up and die from the horrific assault on our nerves or get out the video camera to record this special moment. In the end, Joshua crawled down to the foot of the bed to suffocate himself under the bedclothes and I got up and nursed her. She sacked back out shortly thereafter.

While I’m bitching about sleep habits, I think I’ll chime in on this teething thing because I think it’s going to kill me. Half the time I can’t tell if the tylenol is even doing anything because she is still frantically screeching and generally behaving like a rabid animal. I went to the store today and picked up some Hyland’s teething tablets, which are basically chamomile, sugar, and monkey oil or some such. As far as I can tell, they are not working either. I sincerely hope the remaining 18 teeth all break through at once so we can be done already.

Another (non) bonus: with the teeth, I get bit. I don’t know how to discourage the biting thing; she just wants to tear into pretty much anything that gets near her face. My boob is of course NOT an appropriate teether. Hollering in pain, telling her not to bite me, and what the books say to do (mash her face into your boob so that her nose is covered and she lets go–I’m totally serious, that’s what they say) do not work. She finds it all hilarious and just bites harder.

On the plus side, I have discovered a way to get actual non-milk food into the baby: a straw. She’ll suck anything down a straw. It’s quite miraculous. She still objects to spoon feeding the majority of the time but has finally figured out how to pick up food bits and put them into her own mouth. You would think this might be second nature, what with everything else she touches immediately going straight into the mouth. However, she just knows when something is food and when something is not and the thing that she wants in her mouth is the dirt clod/sock/pebble and not the pea/apple/sweet potato. But at last, she made the leap (or decision) and stuck a bit of freeze-dried pineapple in her mouth. And then more and more until she had a mouthful of dessicated fruit bits sticking all over. We’re working now on the actual ingestion of the food.

Ronin is surprisingly mobile for not yet really crawling (she only does that in the wee hours) and I’ve been working on “baby-proofing” the place. Basically I let her have the run of the room and everything she goes for, I take away and put in a higher place. I turned back around after putting the last of the floor debris (Joshua’s gnarly old slippers) on a shelf to see her gnawing on the corner of our iron bed. Also, what IS is about outlets that fascinate babies so? She spots these from across the room and just beelines right for them; today I saw her eyeing the flashing power strip with curiosity. Unfortunately, I think the likelihood of growing a second set of eyes in the back of my head is more realistic than making the entire apartment completely safe for a baby.

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9 Comments on “Wicked cute and some screaming too.”

I thought the last picts of Ronin could not be out done.
But well these are sooo fantastic, they make me laugh while i have tears of joy.
these go with me to work next week. the other picts also get to go with me.

My mother always used the persistent biting stage as the signal for weaning. The first step was just a swat on the butt. OK, it may not be PC, but it was a light swat (saw her doing it with 3 of my siblings) and it was more surprise than anything else that got the biting to stop. Once that stopped working, the kid got weaned.

As far as power outlets, when I was 3 I crawled over to an outlet over the heater floor grating, knelt on the grating and put my dad’s car key right into the socket. My mother spotted me just as I was pushing it it, but too late to stop it. It knocked me on my little ass and from all the howling she knew I was OK, so she didn’t even bother taking me to the doctor. Life was simpler 1/2 a century ago.

Oh, my sympathies are with you Cheyenne, and though I feel for you it makes me feel so much better about the fact that my one year old has rarely slept an entire night and last night was screaming like something out of “The Omen”! Those evil, evil teeth. I wish his would all pop at once and be done too!
BTW, Ronin is TOO CUTE in that little dancing girl outfit! OMG, could she be any cuter?

Man – I hope I don’t have to wean her yet… While she isn’t still hating solids, she is not exactly enthusiastic about them and it’s a battle to get her to eat more than two or three spoonfuls of anything. But, she hasn’t bitten me in a day and I feel like I’m starting to heal a bit so maybe things are looking up.

I might actually have some clove oil in the first aid kit from the boat–I bought it before we went sailing in case of dental emergency on the high seas. Shockingly, we don’t even have whiskey in the house at the moment. Seems I used it all up trying to dull the pain in my brain all those times Ronin was exceptionally difficult to get down at night…

A major plus: She slept really WELL for the first time ever last night!!! This of course after what we think was the worst night ever two nights ago…

I have to announce that I felt Celine’s first tooth actually broken through today! I was so ecstatic for the whole afternoon. There’s only one though…umm. The biting of the boob has yet to come I suppose but she did give me a hickey that I was unaware of until after my shower today.

Happy sleeping.. ha ha. We are seeing signs of improvement lately… only waking up once but we are still crossing our fingers.

omg. I’m totally freaked out now. Maddox’s Kung Fu gum grip already brings me to my knees (and tears). The thought of teeth is unfathomable! I’m light headed just thinking about it. I don’t know how you do it with the no sleeping and the crying and the teething and the biting. You are kind of my hero.